Photo:EyePress News/Shutterstock
EyePress News/Shutterstock
Rush, 61, is remembered on the list as a “pilot, engineer, and businessman who oversaw the design and construction of the OceanGate submersibleTitan, intended to take tourists to view the wreck of theTitanic.”
His placement on the list lies after that of Thomas Andrews, who was the reported naval architect in charge of the plans for theTitanic,who died on board. His body was reportedly never recovered.
The OceanGate CEO wasone of five passengerswho died on theTitansubmersible after it went missing on June 18 while on the company’sTitanicexpedition to the historic underwater site.
U.S. Coast Guard officialsannounced in a press conference on Thursdaythat all five passengers were presumed dead after a remotely-operated vehicle (ROV) from the Canadian vesselHorizon Arcticfound pieces of the missing sub near theTitanic.
JOEL SAGET,HANDOUT/Dirty Dozen Productions/OceanGat/AFP via Getty Images
Nargeolet’s friend, Fred Hagen, shared with PEOPLE thatRush created theTitan“in order to explore the deepest depths” of the ocean and that “he wanted to democratize the sea and open it up to individuals.”
TheTitanic-bound excursionsbegan in 2021with atotal of 18 dives plannedstarting this summer.
In a previousinterview with Princeton University, Rush shared that his passion for theTitanicwas based on a “wealth of information waiting to be discovered.”
“There’s not a lot of data on how these ships decay,” he said. “There are thousands of shipwrecks worldwide that sank with over 500,000 gallons of toxic substances, typically fuel oil.” Speaking about OceanGate’s expedition, he shared that “part of what we do is get people to appreciate that most of human history is underwater.”
An OceanGate submersible.Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Ocean Gate / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
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“If you think about it from an archeological perspective, if you had a caravan of precious items — records, books, gold, or whatever — and you were snowed in on the passes of Mongolia, all that stuff got stolen, pillaged. If you were in a ship carrying King Herod’s possessions to Rome and you sank, [it’s] still there,” he said.
The Wikipedia list also includes Cowper Phipps Coles, a Royal Navy captain who reportedly drowned in the sinking of HMSCaptain, a masted turret ship of his own design, and German American inventor Julius H. Kroehl, who is thought to have died from decompression sickness after experimental dives with a Sub Marine Explorer he reportedly constructed and co-designed.
source: people.com
